Showing posts with label Town of Hempstead. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Town of Hempstead. Show all posts

Friday, July 8, 2016

Street lighting

About two weeks ago, I encountered a fellow changing street light bulbs inside the globes of the stanchion lights in our neighborhood.  His truck carried the name of a private contractor, presumably hired by the Town of Hempstead.  The pink-orange sodium vapor lamps were replaced by LED lamps inside the same globes.
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Because these are enclosed, I am unable to determine what each bulb looks like.  I suspect they resemble the one in this link, as it has a screw base socket. Also, the new lights appear concentrated in a bulb, unlike the LEDs that the Town of Hempstead has affixed to utility poles.
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The photos below show a variety of street lights in and around Seaford. Clicking on a photo will enlarge it.





Of the new LED street lighting around Seaford, the type in the above two photos seems to prevail. There are five LED bulbs in an X formation, plus a bar of 8 buttons or smaller lights, the purpose of which I don't know.  On Oakland Avenue, this type does not illumine the width of the street.


Maybe six or seven years ago, the Town of Hempstead installed these decorative "bishop's crook" lamps along five or six blocks of Merrick Road.  The other night, some glowed a pinkish-orange, suggesting that the lights were high-pressure sodium vapor lamps.  I'm not too sure whether the whitish lights were mercury vapor or LEDs.   A 2009 article in the New York Daily News priced similar lamp posts at $10,000.



It's somewhat difficult to see that the above Seaford Avenue lamp has twice the LED's than the insufficient Oakland Avenue lamp in the previous photo.  Each position on the X has two adjacent bulbs.



I am fairly certain that the towns supply street lighting along Sunrise Highway and Merrick Road, resulting in a change of illumination for eastbound drivers when they pass over the town line at Tackapausha Park, the creek being the division existing for 200 years or more.  From about 1985 until 2015 something then shocked the eastbound motorist: traffic signals displaying yellow in Massapequa (Town of Oyster Bay) were the same color as the street lights!  With the recent introduction of brilliant white LED street lights, it is again possible to see all three aspects of signals.
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One old sodium vapor bulb was left on Saddle Path, Seaford, surrounded by new LED lights shining white.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

New trees beautify a parking lot

Ten new trees line Sunrise Highway west of Jackson Avenue. I presume that were planted by the Town of Hempstead during the renovation of the railroad station parking lot. The trees blossomed in late April, a marvelous display of alternating pink and white colors, seen best from passing cars. I did not risk a photo from the median to get the line-up of all ten. Congratulations to the planners and the supporting taxpayers!

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Topo map of Seaford, 1903

A discussion on railroad.net concerning LIRR grade crossings along Sunrise Highway led me to this find at the University of New Hampshire's digital collection. They have made available what seems to be a 1903-based 7 1/2 minute quarter of the Babylon Quadrangle, showing downtown Seaford: here. Note that there is no Sunrise Highway and only Washington Avenue and Seaman's Neck Road cross the tracks. The west border of this map seems to lie near the present Seaford post office at 73 degrees, 30 minutes.
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The site also offers the northeast quarter of the Hempstead quadrangle here. Much to my surprise, Seaford Avenue is shown running north from Merrick Road, jogging where Waverly now is, and continuing north-west to Wantagh station. Parts of Oakland Avenue and Woodward Avenue are both shown (where I walked this morning), but I suspect the streets may have had other names.

Saturday, April 19, 2008

More on street drainage

My issue of the Wantagh-Seaford Citizen dated 4.17.2008 has arrived. On page 8 is a six-paragraph press release from Supervisor Kate Murray and Councilwoman Angie Cullin on the road improvement project "for the Guildford Park Area of Seaford" "slated for completion in July." Subscription to the Citizen is only $32 for two years. Link here.

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Waverly Avenue digging, 4.2.2008

I have deleted my previous post about the street construction, because much has become obvious. It seems that the digging project along Waverly Avenue, Bit Path, and Locust Avenue involves drainage. Various gas and water lines, perhaps also electricity and telephone, have to be moved to make way for better drainage. Twelve big 48-inch pipes were stored on Waverly Avenue, plus what appear to be concrete catchbasins marked for Guildford Park Drive. Yet there are many locations that have surveyors' marks that seem to indicate more excavations. Further information is welcome.